Effective Sept. 9, North Penn Legal Services will consolidate its Scranton and Wilkes-Barre operations at a new office at 33 N. Main St. in downtown Pittston in a merger intended to conserve the scarce resources of a nonprofit agency stung hard by state and federal budget cuts.

"It's been difficult because the client need is still there," attorney Peggy Engle said of North Penn's struggles. "We have had to be creative in how we do some things."

North Penn is the region's largest nonprofit provider of civil legal aid to low-income people, covering Lackawanna, Luzerne and 18 other counties. During the program year that ended June 30, agency attorneys handled nearly 11,000 cases, including 2,312 through the Public Square office in Wilkes-Barre and 1,354 through the Linden Street office in Scranton.

Ms. Engle, managing attorney at the agency's Wilkes-Barre office, will move into the same role in Pittston, although with a somewhat larger staff.

All 12 employees from Wilkes-Barre and all 10 from Scranton will relocate to the Pittston office, she said. Eventually, there will be 24 employees, including 13 attorneys.

Ms. Engle acknowledged the consolidation could create accessibility hardships for the low-income population North Penn serves.

"I certainly expect there will be some folks it will be an issue for, and we are sensitive to that," she said.

One reason the agency chose the North Main Street location is both the County of Lackawanna Transit System and the Luzerne County Transportation Authority have bus routes there, Ms. Engle said.

In addition, the way people apply for legal aid services and how those services are delivered have evolved over the last few years, requiring fewer in-office visits, she said. Using a toll-free telephone number, for example, prospective clients can complete the intake process from their homes.

"Then there are a fair number of cases where we can give advice over the phone, answer their questions, and they don't need to come into the office," Ms. Engle said.

In the 20 counties served by North Penn, Lackawanna and Luzerne were among the last with separate independent offices, communications director Alison K. Norton said. Most of the offices already serve multiple counties, including the Bethlehem office, created years ago when the Northampton and Lehigh operations merged.

"That's actually a good analogy," Ms. North said. "The new Pittston office is really going to function like our Bethlehem office. In Bethlehem, our staff has an equal distance, pretty much, to go to court in Allentown as they do in Easton. Bethlehem is right in the center - the same thing with Pittston."

The existing telephone and fax numbers for the Scranton and Wilkes-Barre offices will remain operational through the end of September, the agency said. Because the Pittston office will be the hub of the North Penn's computer network, the intake line will be closed through Sept. 11.

Aside from saving money, the move will produce other positives, including more opportunities for staff members to tap into the expertise of their colleagues, Ms. Engle said.

It will also help in terms of support staff, she said. After layoffs and hiring freezes left just one person on the support staff in the Wilkes-Barre office, attorneys and paralegals had to fill in to cover vacation and sick days.

"We were all taking turns sitting up front answering the phones," Ms. Engle said. "Just logistically, we will have more people now who can cover things. Ultimately, it is going to free everybody up to do a better job and provide better service to the client."

Contact the writer: dsingleton@timesshamrock.com

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